Something To Lose
by boop-oop-ee-doo
Summary: "The Scarlet Witch dropped to her knees and screamed, the anguished sound torn from her throat like a predator's teeth tearing flesh. She screamed as she'd screamed for her brother. Screamed for the loss of another person she loved."- Wanda Maximoff is trapped in a nightmare, watching Clint and Natasha battle on a clifftop. Set in the 'Nothing is Impossible' Universe.


AN: I've had this idea since I first saw Endgame. For a while, I considered including it as a chapter in 'The Domestic Life Of The Vision And His Witch', but I eventually decided it works better as a one-shot. Enjoy!

* * *

Wanda Maximoff rarely had nightmares anymore when she slept in the arms of Vision. These nightmares had grown even more scarce since she had been allowed to come out of hiding. Of course, the fact that coming out of hiding meant that she always got to sleep in Vision's arms was a great help.

Tonight though, Wanda was unsettled. She tossed and turned in her sleep, lost in a nightmare that felt all too real.

* * *

Wanda could see Clint and Natasha fighting it out on a windy clifftop. She tried to run to them, to find out what was happening, why, but her feet wouldn't move. Seeing them fighting was not necessarily a cause for alarm. Though Clint was retired, 'for real this time', he still liked keeping a toe in the pond, so to speak. So, it was a relatively regular occurrence for Wanda to find them sparring somewhere on the farm when Nat stayed over.

This wasn't sparring. This felt wrong. Their hair was different.. Nat's much longer, Clint's styled strangely, and they both looked older. There was a desperation in the way the two fought, and the mysterious hooded figure silently overseeing the proceedings only added to the eerily real, but not quite right feeling of the situation.

For some strange reason, each of them seemed to be trying to jump from the cliff.. Fighting over which one of them would die. Wanda called to them both, but they couldn't hear her. Clint had knocked Nat down, running and leaping from the cliff's edge, but then Natasha leapt after him, both of them falling. Wanda screamed without sound, but finally, she could move, racing to the edge.

For one painfully brief moment, Wanda was relieved. She could see them both dangling from the rock face. Clint clinging to Nat's grappling hook with one hand, and Nat with the other. Then she heard Natasha's voice..

"Let me go.. It's okay."

_"No, don't let go."_

Wanda knew by now that they couldn't hear her, but she tried anyway.

_"Don't let go, I'm here, I'll help you.."_

Wanda tried to summon her power, pull them both up, whatever was going on, they could work it out.. But no power would come. Natasha kicked away from the cliff-face, tearing her hand from Clint's grip. She fell, Clint cried. Then Clint Barton was gone. Natasha Romanoff's body lay motionless at the bottom of the cliff.

Wanda Maximoff was frozen on the cliff top, numb with shock. Seeing the Black Widow's blood flowing onto the cold stone below, whatever spell had kept Wanda silent was broken. The Scarlet Witch dropped to her knees and screamed, the anguished sound torn from her throat like a predator's teeth tearing flesh. She screamed as she'd screamed for her brother. Screamed for the loss of another person she loved.

_"Wanda.."_

Someone was calling to her now, familiar, but so far away she could barely hear. Raging scarlet energy engulfed the cliff top, the whole landscape beginning to crumble. The far away voice was slightly closer now, more frantic.

_"Wanda.. Wanda!"_

* * *

"Wanda! Wanda, wake up! You're having a nightmare!"

Wanda woke, still screaming. Vision was shaking her lightly by the shoulders. The far away voice had been his. Wanda had almost thrown him into the wall in a burst of furious red energy, but Vision, used to his beloved's nightmare-induced outbursts, phased to prevent this.

"What happened? What's wrong?!" Natasha Romanoff burst into the room, pistol raised. It wasn't loaded of course, she never carried loaded weapons into a house with children. However, there were still at least fifty ways that the Black Widow could kill a person with an unloaded gun.

Hearing Nat's voice, Wanda's screams quieted, and she slowly began to calm. It really had been just a dream.

"Natasha.. Natasha!" Wanda sprang out of bed, racing to throw her arms around the older woman.

"Whoa, easy kiddo!" Nat, relaxing herself, dropped the pistol to return Wanda's embrace. "What's wrong?" Looking around and only seeing Vision, Natasha glared at him for a moment and clutched Wanda tighter, looking very much like a Mother Bear protecting her cub. "What did you do?"

"Nothing!" Vision raised his hands defensively. "Wanda just had a nightmare.."

"He's right.." Wanda confirmed. "Just a nightmare. I dreamed that.. but _esti in viata."_

"Huh? Of course I'm alive" Nat's brow wrinkled. "I mean, there might have been one or two close calls on this latest mission. There usually is. But I'm fine, I got here a couple of hours ago. And I really don't plan on dying anytime soon.."

"Good.."

At that moment, one of the twins began to cry. Nat's eyes lit up.

"Can I get him? I've missed my baby snuggles.."

* * *

They let her, but Wanda followed close behind, still a little shaken up. She watched quietly as Nat scooped Billy into her arms, gently shushing him. Tommy was quite a heavy sleeper, and dozed on undisturbed by his brother's cries. Billy slowly calmed, clinging to the front of his Auntie Nat's tank top and seeming very happy to see her. Wanda dearly hoped this was not one of the occasions in which her tiny telepath had shared her dreams.

"Shh.. It's okay, _myshka. _Auntie Nat's got you."

"Myshka.. that's mouse, isn't it?"

"Little mouse. It fits him, tiny and sweet.. Tommy is _zoichik_.. a bunny, the way he speeds around the place now."

"You really love them.." Wanda smiled softly.

"I do.." Natasha nodded. "It's kinda scary.. For a long time I had nothing. Then I got this team.. this family. Clint and his kids, you and the boys. And it's scary, having something to love.."

"Because it means you've got something to lose" said Wanda.

"Exactly" Nat gently bounced Billy. "I wouldn't give any of it up though, because who I was before I had all this? I don't ever want to be that again.. That dark.."

"I understand.."

"I suppose you do. I meant what I said before.. I don't plan on dying anytime soon. Not until I've enjoyed my family for a while."

"Good" Wanda grinned. "The twins need their Godmother."

"I'll be right here" Nat laid Billy back in his crib once he had drifted back to sleep. She turned to leave the room, pausing to press a kiss to Wanda's temple. "I'm going back to bed, and you should too. I'll still be right here when you get up, okay?"

"Okay" Wanda smiled.

* * *

Wanda headed back to bed, finding Vision waiting for her, and she quickly curled up beside him.

"Are you alright?" He asked gently.

"I will be" She kissed his cheek.

Her nightmare had felt so real.. maybe, in another world, it was. But not in this world. Not their world.

In their world, Natasha Romanoff was alive and well, and she wasn't going anywhere.


End file.
